Low lobster prices mean big savings for area shoppers

With the price of lobster tumbling, area grocery shoppers are finding that the cost of buying a live lobster is lower than a block of cheese.

Katherine Finnell

With the price of lobster tumbling, area grocery shoppers are finding that the cost of buying a live lobster is lower than a block of cheese.

“There’s a lot of excitement that the prices are down,” said Mike Kettenbach, the seafood buyer for Market Basket.

Retail prices for some lobster have dropped to less than $6 a pound. At Market Basket, a live soft-shell lobster costs $3.99 a pound.

Kettenbach said lobster sales at Market Basket are up exponentially. In its Brockton store, lobster had sold out early Monday afternoon.

Last week, all 68 stores sold 500,000 pounds of lobster, Kettenbach said.

“The quality has been really exciting, they’re coming right off the boats and into the stores,” he said. “We’ve had a really good run.”

Lobstermen in Scituate said a glut on the market is driving down prices, caused by New England lobster hauls that came about a month earlier right as Canadian lobstermen were wrapping up strong catches during their spring season.

“The lobster showed up four to six weeks early, and there were no tourists around and it started to pile up so the price drops,” said Bill Adler, executive director of the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association, which has 1,300 members and is based in Scituate.

This surplus means good news for lobster-loving customers who don’t want to stretch their wallets thin for a lobster dinner.

At the Seaport Seafood Market in Brockton, owner Kyung Kim said prices depend not only on the market, but on the size and quality of the lobsters.

She said lobsters at the store currently cost $9.99, but they are hard-shell lobsters, which are better quality than cheaper soft-shell lobsters.